Porous Structure of Cylindrical Particle Compacts

The porous compacts of non-spherical particles are frequently used in energy storage devices and other advanced applications. In the present work, the microstructures of compacts of monodisperse cylindrical particles are investigated. The cylindrical particles with various aspect ratios are generated using superquadrics, and the discrete element method was adopted to simulate the compacts formed under gravity deposition of randomly oriented particles. The Voronoi tessellation is then used to quantify the porous microstructure of compacts. With one exception, the median reduced free volume of Voronoi cells increases, and the median local packing density decreases for compacts composed of cylinders with a high aspect ratio, indicating a loose packing of long cylinders due to their mechanical interlocking during compaction. The obtained data are needed for further optimization of compact porous microstructure to improve the transport properties of compacts of non-spherical particles.